With his dismissal made, Braxton turned away and flipped open his organizer; he’d have to schedule another meeting once Davenport returned. He realized Tom stuck around, watching him, but he didn’t care. He ignored the older man until Tom spoke.
“What about compensation pay for my leave of absence?”
Braxton slowly lifted his face. Weeks’ worth of pent up rage must’ve shown on his face because Tom took a leery step back.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Braxton said. “I hate you.”
Tom’s eyes widened.
“I hate you more than…than…Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever hated anyone before. But I fucking hate you. I’d be happy if I never had to see you again. You took away the most important thing in my life.”
Slipping a little too close to his raw emotions, Braxton paused and took a second to breathe through his nose. “If I were you,” he started again, calmer this time. “I wouldn’t ask for any favors or special treatment from me. Ever. You’re lucky you got your job back.”
“Why did I get it back then?” Tom’s gaze was confrontational, but his face had paled to pasty and sick.
Braxton snorted out a derisive laugh.
“Haven’t you caught on yet, old man? You’re her father. I couldn’t have fired you if you’d been the fucking embezzler.” To his own horror, his voice cracked.
His face turned hot. “Get out,” he snapped, hoping the man would scram before he lost it.
Thankfully, Tom stumbled backward, reaching blindly behind him for the exit.
* * * *
Braxton stopped by the liquor store on his way home and had the bottle open by the time he staggered through the front door.
He hadn’t nearly reached that happy place where nothing hurt anymore when his phone rang.
He had no idea what hour it was. Time had no meaning but pints and quarts, and his bourbon was three-fourths empty.
He checked his caller ID, not quite social enough to talk to anyone. But when he saw his parents’ number, he answered.
“Yeah?”
“Guess what?” his dad’s cheerful voice echoed through the line.
“Hmm?” Braxton muttered.
“You know that new doctor we started taking Savannah to a month or so ago? We haven’t seen Clara once since she’s started with him.”
This information actually had Braxton sitting straighter. “Really? That’s great, Dad. Do you think she’s cured?”
“No,” Spencer was quick to answer. He paused to clear his throat. “No, Doc says Clara’s still in there, inside Savannah’s head. But this treatment she’s going through is actually working. In another four to six years, she should be herself again.” He sucked in a breath. “God, Brax, you should see her. It’s like we have our old Savannah back.”
“Wow. That’s...That’s really amazing. I’m happy she’s better.” He meant his words, and actually felt guilty for drowning his misery about something so trivial when his sister had been struggling through serious problems.
“So, I was thinking,” Spencer started.
“You’re ready to come back to Farris,” Braxton finished for him.
His father remained quiet a moment before he sighed. “Yes. I am.”
Braxton nodded. “Then, I’ll tell the crew tomorrow.”
“Wait. Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know we talked about it before you took over, but since you’ve been in charge for a while—”
“Dad,” Braxton cut in, “it’s perfectly fine. You have to be going stir crazy at home with nothing to do. Your employees miss you and, well, Greg keeps begging me to return to ProTech.”
“He has?” Relief filled Spencer’s voice. “That’s great. I’m glad everything’s going to work out. And maybe Tom will ease up on you over his daughter since you’re not going to be his boss anymore. You two kids could get back together.”
“Yeah,” Braxton murmured. “Maybe.” When Hell transferred to the North Pole.
He and Lenna were over. The end. And there was no way he was going to torture himself by returning to ProTech, where he’d see her every miserable day he went to work. Damn it, he’d shot himself in the foot for getting her that job.
Braxton hung up with his father a moment later and stared at the phone thoughtfully.
Lenna was still at ProTech, wasn’t she? He hadn’t heard any news about her in two weeks.
Maybe she hated her workload and wanted to quit. Maybe she already had. Or maybe Greg didn’t like her performance and had fired her.
Thinking there was a chance he might be able to return to his old job, Braxton glanced at the phone still in his hand and dialed Greg.
“Brax, man,” his boy answered on the third ring. “Wuz up? You ready to come back to ProTech yet?”
Yes, please, he was so ready.
But Braxton merely snorted. “You never give up, do you?”
“Hey, how do you think I get all the chicks?” was Greg’s cocky answer.
“Oh, ho!” Braxton replied and grabbed his stomach as if he were having a normal, everyday, carefree conversation with his bud. “So, your big secret is to harass a girl until she gives in, huh?”
Greg was quiet a moment before he came back with, “Well, I like to think of it as persuasive coaxing.”
Braxton snickered. God, he missed the sound of his own laughter. “Look,” he told Greg as he scratched the back of his neck. “I was wondering if you were up for some climbing.”
Yeah, that sounded good. He needed a nice laboring, sweaty day full of rock climbing. Maybe if he was lucky, he could fall off a mountain and put himself out of his misery.
“Am I up for rock climbing?” Greg snorted. “Dude. You name the time and place, and I’m there.”
Braxton bit his lip. “How about this weekend? Rose Ridge?”
“Sold.”
“Good,” Braxton said. Great. Now, how was he going to work his way into asking about Lenna without raising any flags? “How’s it been?” he asked. “Haven’t seen you in a few.” Okay, that was a lame attempt, but hey, he had nothing here.
“It’s going,” Greg replied. “Actually, I was starting to think you’d gotten yourself into a relationship or something since I hadn’t heard from you in a while.”
“No,” Braxton lied. “No, I haven’t been seeing anyone.” He cleared his throat. “But speaking of ladies...” Yeah, it was a bad segue, but he’d lost his patience. “How’s that girl doing? The one I recommended to you for the translating position. She told me she got the job, but I, uh, I haven’t heard from her since.”
His fib actually sounded believable. When he’d become such an accomplished liar, he had no idea.
“Lenna,” Greg sighed her name, making Braxton’s teeth clench. “Pretty Lenna is awesome, man. We’ve yet to send a website her way she hasn’t been able to translate.”
“Is that so?” Braxton said, hearing a smidgeon of disappointment slip into his voice. “She’s doing well, then?” Damn.
“She’s doing fantastic. You can tell she really likes what she does too, because she thanks me for hiring her, like, every day.”
Braxton slid into a chair, his chest burning.
That sounded like Lenna. Always so thankful.
He wished Greg would go on, tell him more about her. He was glad she liked her job. He really was. It’d been important to her to find something she would enjoy. Her happiness at ProTech made his inability to return almost worth it.
Jesus, he missed her.
“Yep,” Greg continued. “So, you should really give yourself a pat on the back, bro, because I never would’ve hired her without your approval.”
“Hmm,” Braxton murmured.
“Don’t you just feel like her fairy godmother?” Greg teased.
Actually, he felt more like puking.
“So...” Greg asked, almost evasively. “When are you coming back to ProTech again?”
Sure. Why shouldn’t he return? Then he could work alongside Lenna where they coul
d be one big, happy family...and then he could shoot himself in the head.
“I really need to form a partnership with you now,” Greg went on. “That way I can put Lenna under your supervision, and it wouldn’t be weird for me to ask her out.”
Braxton’s vision grayed. “Say what?”
“What do you think?” Greg asked. “Is it wrong to ask out one of your employees?”
“I...ah...” Braxton couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe.
Greg wanted Lenna?
Of course, he wanted Lenna. She was Lenna.
“She’s been majorly bummed lately. I think I’m just the kind of guy to cheer her up, you know. She’s really hot too.”
Touch her and die, Braxton nearly growled.
He caught himself at the last second and forced a deep, calming breath. But his nausea only intensified. He couldn’t take this. Just imagining Lenna with Greg—
“Brax?” Greg called after a second. “Yo, you still there?”
“I...I’m sorry. I have a call on the other line,” he lied. Again. It was some kind of phenomenon. “It’s the office. I should take it.”
“Fine,” Greg grumbled. “Go play Boss Boy. See you at the ridge.”
“Yeah.” Braxton quickly clicked off and pressed the receiver to his forehead. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
She loved her job. And Greg liked her.
Braxton barely made it to the bathroom before the bottle of booze came up, and he vomited for a solid five minutes.
CHAPTER 25
Face stiff from the smile he forced, Braxton watched his employees file into the conference room. And, yes, they were still his employees for the next few days.
“I apologize for calling everyone in for another spur of the moment meeting. But I actually have positive news today.”
He waited for a few good-natured chuckles to die down, taking a deep breath as they did.
“I’m sure most of you are aware my sister, Savannah, was in a bad car accident last year. She was in a comma for nine weeks. But what few of you—actually, I’m sure none of you—realize is that when she woke, she wasn’t...”
Braxton broke off, realizing this was going to be a lot harder to announce than he’d originally thought.
Clearing his throat, he tried to speak again.
“She thought she was someone named Clara. For three weeks, she had no idea who Savannah was, insisting we call her Clara. We weren’t sure what to do. But then, one morning, Savannah woke up.”
Braxton filled his cheeks with air so he could blow out a long breath. He glanced around, noticing everyone was silent and transfixed—if not perplexed—by his every word. Lowering his eyes, he continued.
“She became her old self again but had no memory of ever being Clara. It was like she had just then come out of the coma.”
Getting to the most painful part of his story, Braxton lowered his eyes and played with a pen on the desk as he spoke, focusing on the cap wobbling loose. “The doctors diagnosed her with Dissociative Identity Disorder.” He lifted his face and took in the myriad of shocked expressions. “Savannah has a split personality.”
A few people gasped; others covered their mouths with their hands.
Braxton lowered his face again. “I know a lot of you were concerned when she had her accident; you wanted to help. But this was something we couldn’t really talk about. It was just too...painful. Savannah didn’t want anyone to know about it either. So, on behalf of my family, I would like to apologize for not disclosing her condition earlier. But it has been a really hard year to get through, and we just couldn’t handle...” He shook his head.
“Anyway, my mother spent so much time with her she almost ended up in the hospital herself from panic attacks. It affected her enough to worry Dad. And that’s why he felt he had to leave the company for a while. He considered it his duty to be with Savannah and Mom during this time. Ergo, that’s why I ended up here to fill his place.”
He cleared his throat again, thinking he definitely should’ve brought in a glass of water with him for this little speech. “So, anyway. I’m finally getting to the good part of my story.”
He clasped his hands together and was able to give his first genuine smile of the day. “After months of experimenting with treatment after treatment on Savannah, about six weeks ago, she started seeing a new doctor, and she hasn’t been Clara once since she’s been visiting him.”
“Oh, thank God,” Tasha gasped. “So, she’s cured?”
Braxton sent his secretary a sad smile. “No. She’s not cured yet, but this new treatment is successfully keeping her other personality in regression. And as long as she continues her psychotherapy and everything progresses as it has been, she’ll be okay in a few years.”
Smiling around the room, he said, “Which brings me to the point of why I’ve called this meeting. Since my sister is doing so much better, my father’s been growing antsy with nothing to do. Therefore, come Monday morning, he will return to Farris Industries in full capacity as president of the company.”
Braxton had to admit, he thought his employees would show a little more enthusiasm over that announcement than they did. He’d expected some kind of reaction. Instead, utter silence met him.
Finally, Ben Hendricks asked, “But what about you?”
Braxton blinked. “Uh, well, I’ll be around for a few weeks, of course, to help Dad catch up with all the changes, but then I’ll be...you know, I’ll be gone.”
Charlie Fairbanks gasped. “You’re leaving?” The funny part was he didn’t sound thrilled by the news. “You’re leaving the entire company?”
“I, uh, yeah. I’m leaving the entire company.”
Bowled over to discover they all appeared disheartened about his departure, Braxton experienced a flash of accomplishment. Despite the handicap of youth he’d had when he’d arrived, he’d triumphed and managed to somehow gain the respect of his reluctant employees. Ninety percent of them, anyway.
How bizarre...and flattering.
“So, what are you going to do?” Tasha asked as she chewed on a fingernail.
Braxton shrugged. Then he forced a grin. “Anybody heard of a good job opening around?” When no one laughed, his forced smile fell. “No, actually there are a few different options I’m considering,” he assured, still dazed they seemed to care about his future. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”
And yes, he surely did. He planned to go home, get drunk, and wait to die.
By pure accident, Braxton’s gaze landed on Tom. He froze, unable to read the solemn expression in the older man’s face. But merely looking at Lenna’s father caused him to choke.
He glanced away and cleared his throat.
“That’s all I have to say.” Grabbing the pen and tablet he’d brought in with him, he marched from the room.
* * * *
The top employees of Farris Industries gawked at each other as Braxton fled.
For a moment, no one spoke and then Pat Foley said, “Damn. I was just starting to like the kid, too.”
“That poor child,” Beth Harders cooed. “A broken engagement and lost job all in one month? Breaks my heart just to think about how miserable he must be.”
Tom leaned against the wall where he’d been standing and jammed his hands into his pockets.
When he caught Ben glancing at him, he jerked his gaze away.
“He did a good job while he was here,” Charlie lamented. “It surprised the hell out of me. But the boy stepped up and filled Spencer’s shoes like nobody’s business.”
“I think he was lying,” Tasha said. “I don’t think he has any plans at all. He looked too beaten to have any idea what he was going to do next.”
A hard ball of—what was that, guilt?—formed in Tom’s chest. It swelled and started to block his airway until he found it difficult to breathe.
Tugging at his tie, he coughed, but the ball remained lodged.
He told himself he wasn’t accountable. Non
e of this was his fault. But shame plagued him anyway.
Everyone was right. Braxton Farris had been a decent employer. For as young as he was, he’d done a spectacular job, and he’d made some big, spot-on decisions, despite the obstacles Tom knew he’d put in the kid’s path by being so obstinate.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about Braxton over much,” Pat said. “After all the work he put into that one company, ProTech, when he worked there, I bet they’ll name him the Messiah if he goes back.”
Tom jerked his head up. “Did you say ProTech?”
“Yeah, haven’t you heard of it? It’s one of the fastest growing online businesses these days. I hear it might be the next Microsoft or Google.”
“And our Braxton worked there before coming here?” Tasha asked, clearly skeptical.
“Hell, he damn near built the place from the ground up. He and one of his friends, Scandy or something or other, thought up the idea. They started it together, and from what Spencer told me, Braxton even invested a ton of money to get it off to a running start. To be honest with you, I’m not sure why his friend didn’t make him a partner, but Braxton let his buddy take all the glory.” Pat shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe he knew he’d be coming to Farris someday.”
“Good.” Tasha sighed. “At least he has somewhere to go now.”
Except he didn’t, and Tom knew why Braxton wouldn’t return to ProTech.
Damn it all to hell.
This piece of information was more than he could take. He needed to talk to the kid. Now. Letting out a frustrated breath, he stalked from the conference room, leaving his co-workers to gape after him. He went straight to the president’s office. When he found the door partially open, he pushed inside.
Braxton stood at his window with his back to the door, holding his hands laced together behind his head.
Tom cringed. “Did you know this was going to happen all along?”
Braxton whirled around. “Tom,” he gasped and pressed his hand to his heart, waiting a moment before blowing out a long breath. “Did I know what was going to happen?”
“That your father was going to return? Did you realize your presidency over this company was only temporary?”